A perfect weekend for Russell
George Russell (Mercedes) was untouchable this weekend in Baku, taking a well-deserved win, his first in three months. For once this season, the Briton put together a flawless weekend and outclassed teammate Kimi Antonelli, who made his first big mistake of the year by hitting a wall on Friday in qualifying.
“I’m very proud because I’ve overcome a lot of issues adapting my driving style to these new cars. It’s finally become more intuitive and that’s boosting my confidence, even though I always believed in myself,” Russell said. Fastest in the first two free practice sessions, he then crushed qualifying to take pole position with more than eight tenths over Charles Leclerc.
On Saturday, he got a good start and quickly pulled away, holding more than an 11-second lead over Piastri when the safety car came out on lap 31 of 51. Under pressure from a charging Verstappen, who started eighth but got stuck in traffic late in the race, Russell held firm.
Antonelli limits the damage, Russell claws back 15 points
Russell took 15 points out of Antonelli’s championship lead, with the Italian recovering from 16th to 5th, again helped by safety car restarts. Antonelli still leads the standings by 66 points, but Russell showed he’s back to his best. “My teammate is having an incredible season. He’s under more pressure than me in his position, but I’m not going to chase him — I’m just going to chase wins every weekend,” Russell added.
“I drove like my grandmother today, in damage-limitation mode. I didn’t take any risks, I was very cautious before attempting anything. I didn’t have enough pace to hope for more,” admitted Antonelli, who nearly lost everything when Franco Colapinto (Alpine) collected teammate Pierre Gasly and defending champion Lando Norris.
A perfect week for Hadjar, career-best third podium
Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) also stood out in Baku, reaching the podium on his return after missing Zandvoort, Monza and Madrid with a left wrist injury. The Parisian’s perfect week, ahead of his 22nd birthday on Monday, began with a one-year contract extension at Red Bull.
After a month and a half on the sidelines, Hadjar found his rhythm in practice, qualified fourth, then finished third: his third career F1 podium, and second this season after Monaco. “I’m really happy with my comeback and my approach — I built up my weekend slowly because it’s a tough circuit, and I made no mistakes,” Hadjar said, his wrist still not fully healed. “I really missed racing, so I can’t wait to get to Malaysia.”
The paddock now heads to Southeast Asia for back-to-back races: Sepang, which F1 hasn’t visited since 2017, followed by Singapore.
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